Thoughts and observations about Modesto and Stanislaus County

Tuesdays MID Rate Increase Meeting

The title says it all yet tells you nothing. Once again the three MID Directors who are most responsible for MID’s sad financial condition were quick to vote for another rate increase.

By my count thirteen people went to the podium to request the Board to:

Hold the line when it comes to rate increases.

To wait until the new Board members took their places in December.

To stop forcing residential ratepayers from having to subsidize commercial evening use.

To reconsider the changes the Board made to the Domestic Life Support Program.

To allow unrepresented ratepayers to be either represented on the MID Board or remain unaffected by the increase.

Not one single person said “Raise my Rates.”

The Board members respectfully listened to the concerns and then ignored them.

To be fair it was a three to two vote with Tom Van Groningen, Glenn Wild, and Paul Warda voting for the increases (VanGroningen and Wild have voted for rate increases every chance they’ve had)and the two so to be ex-Board members voting against the proposed motion.

Maybe that was the point Van Groningen and Wild were worried about. Maybe they were concerned the new members would influence Warda.

We can only be reminded the Board accepted a higher solar rate than PG&E will be paying (.17 vs .10 kw)and this helped increase the green energy portion. The Board has consistently blamed California AB32 for the increases but when they make decisions that cost us 70% more than necessary the buck, or should I say our buck falls in their court.

Director Tom Van Groningen says they are all honorable men making the best decisions they can.

If that’s the case we need better decision /policy makers than VanGroningen, Wild, and Warda because they’ve allowed Allen Short to lead them, and by proxy us, down the path to destruction.

If you were a business looking for a place to move to would you go where the rates have climbed over 90% in just ten years?

There is still an unaddressed matter of unfunded employee pension and medical benefits that is not reflected in the current budget. Are we going to restructure benefits? Are we freezing wages until total MID compensation packages reflect the local job market? Are we hoping for a fairy godmother to fix the problem for us?

I would like to know what the costs would be to scrub M.I.D. and get a private company to contract with Modesto, seems to me they already have the pensions and means to do all that M.I.D. can do and much,much more.

There are just a few remaining cities in California that have boards to oversee an energy/water companies owned by the tax payers.

With all the rate increases I say scrub the M.I.D.

My understanding is that there are only three Do-it-yourself companies left. T.I.D.,M.I.D. and Redding. End this socialist entity for good.

I know several families that didn’t use their central air this summer, due to the high cost of electricity. But MID just keeps raising their rates, no matter what impact it has on the residents of Modesto.